"Global Fund Cancels Our Futures"
Update: "#GlobalFund: No Future! What's the #AIDS 'Community' doing about it?" Join #MeetUpMondays Host @AIDSindia Mon.11h30 IST/ 6hGMT at #HIV_chat
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- Sarah Boseley writes: "In what must be seen as a serious setback in the progress made against the major infectious diseases in poor countries, a Board meeting of the Global Fund to fight Aids, tuberculosis and malaria in Accra, Ghana, has effectively cancelled its next round of grant-making.
The Fund has been staring at a financial black hole ever since its big replenishment meeting in New York a year ago failed to deliver the sums it hoped for. It wanted $20 billion. It got $11.7 billion. That was in spite of exhortations to donors to pledge money from UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, who warned that the stakes were high and that lives would be lost if pressure on the big killer diseases was not maintained. If we lose the ground we have gained, we will be back to square one ? all that effort and investment, lost. The decisions you make here today will determine the outcome. It once seemed unthinkable that the money would not continue to stream into programmes to treat people with Aids, TB and malaria and to prevent others becoming infected. But that is what is happening. There is no doubt that people who could have been spared will instead fall ill and die as a result of the drying up of funds. There is also a Damoclean sword hanging over the heads of people who are alive and well thanks to drug treatment for their HIV infection. The Global Fund - together with Pepfar (the President's emergency plan for Aids relief) has been the main source of money to pay for drugs. Those who start the combination treatments to prevent HIV causing Aids must stay on the drugs for life. If they stop, there is a danger the virus will become resistant to the drugs they are on.
The Global Fund's Board is buying time by telling governments not to put in new applications for funding for round 11, which is supposed to provide money for 2011 to 2013. It is offering a "transitional funding mechanism", which will allow countries to ask for money to cover essential needs. In recognition of the danger of stopping HIV treatment, this should allow countries to continue to supply drugs to people who are already taking them. But, as Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in her recent address, the need now is to step up the fight against HIV by providing more drugs - not less. Scientific studies showed this year that treatment makes people with HIV less infectious. Failure to keep rolling out the drugs to more and more people will waste an opportunity to deliver what she and others have hopefully termed "an Aids-free generation".
This is Dr Tido von Schoen-Angerer, executive director of Medecins Sans Frontieres' Access Campaign:
There's a shocking incongruence between both the new HIV science and political promises on one hand, and the funding reality that is now hitting the ground on the other. Donors are really pulling the rug out from under people living with HIV/AIDS at precisely the time when we need to move full steam ahead and get life-saving treatment to more people. All governments must chip in to the effort to curb HIV, but especially those with the capacity to really make a difference must urgently step up and support a new funding opportunity for countries by the Global Fund.
The Fund itself is putting a positive gloss on events, talking of focusing efforts where they are most needed. But its executive director, Michel Kazatchkine, acknowledges that the situation is grave:
It is deeply worrisome that inadvertently, the millions of people fighting with deadly diseases are in danger of paying the price for the global financial crisis. There are millions of people dependent on Global Fund resources to stay alive and healthy, and the Global Fund will redouble its efforts to increase the available funding to continue to scale up HIV, TB and malaria interventions."
by Sarah Boseley 23/11/2011 guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/sarah-boseley-global-health/2011/nov/2...
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HIV/AIDS: Following the Fund
Once again, PlusNews does justice to our cause.
JOHANNESBURG, 1 December 2011 (PLUSNEWS) - Running a deficit as high as US$6 billion and forced to cancel its latest round of funding, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria is at a crossroads, and a far cry from where it started. http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?reportID=94360
Why the Global Fund Cancelled Round 11
Analysis from the Global Fund Observer:
At its meeting in December 2010, the Global Fund Board approved the launching of Round 11. At its meeting in May 2011, the Board discussed but did not change this decision. Therefore, in August 2011, Round 11 was launched, and many CCMs devoted enormous amounts of work to preparing their proposals. Then last month, in November 2011, the Board cancelled Round 11.
Why was Round 11 launched and then cancelled? And what does the decision to cancel Round 11 tell us about the Global Fund's financial condition?
In a nutshell, the answer is...
Unlike what some news reports have suggested, the Global Fund has billions of dollars in the bank, with billions more expected to arrive during the next two years. The problem is that most of that money is needed for the current and renewal phases of existing grants. In addition, the Fund has introduced a more cautious methodology for estimating how much funding it will receive in future. Primarily because of these two factors, the Global Fund now estimates that until 2014, it will have almost no money for new grants. Hence, the need to cancel Round 11. It is not accurate to say that Round 11 was cancelled because of decisions by donors since May to cancel, reduce or delay their pledges, because that is not happening.
Read more at: http://www.aidspan.org/gfo
Issue 170: 9 December 2011
A New Funding Opportunity? Huh?
A New Funding Opportunity? Huh? by Bernard Rivers
The Global Fund is renowned for its almost militant policy of transparency. Do you want to know the most recent rating the Fund gave a particular grant? Click here. Do you want to know the precise details of a fraudulent act uncovered by the Office of the Inspector General? Click here. Do you want to read Annex 7 of a Board paper on the Fund's financial situation? Click here.
But when something really important happens, something with enormous consequences for grant applicants, implementers and potential beneficiaries around the world, don't rely on the Global Fund to tell you about it. Three linked incidents at the Fund's recent Board meeting in Accra illustrate this.
The first incident was when the Board - after anguished and at times heated discussion - agreed to cancel Round 11, yet chose wording for the resolution that did not include the word "cancel" or anything implying it. Instead, the Board resolved "to convert Round 11 into a new funding opportunity in 2014." That's roughly equivalent to my calling my hungry children to the dinner table, placing a tasty meal before them, and then, before they can eat, yanking away the meal and replacing it with a couple of raw potatoes, telling the kids that this represents "a new feeding opportunity."
The second incident happened the following morning. Just as we were sending out GFO to 9,000 people with a lead story saying "Board cancels Round 11...", the Global Fund sent out a press release reporting what had happened at the meeting. And amazingly, even though the Board had just made its most difficult decision in ten years, the press release engaged in ever greater avoidance than the Board, because it didn't even contain the words "Round 11." The nearest the release came to this was when it said that as a result of "a revised resource forecast," the Board had "adopted measures ... making savings in the existing grant portfolio ... [in order] to finance essential services for on-going programs that come to their conclusion before 2014." Crystal clear, right?
The third incident occurred later the same day. Twenty-four hours after the Board had made its momentous decision to cancel Round 11 (or, if you prefer, to provide a new funding opportunity), the Fund's website still said nothing about this decision, despite the numerous people who must have been visiting the site to find out more details about what they had been hearing.
This whole approach represents timidity and evasiveness in the extreme. This is not how things should be done. Yes, true, it is how most other large organisations handle such situations. But the Global Fund was supposed to be different, and the Global Fund community deserves better.
Bernard Rivers (bernard.rivers@aidspan.org) is Executive Director of Aidspan and Editor of GFO.
Trim the fat: cut out the consultants
The global health industry has spent hundreds of millions of dollars paying expensive consultants to parachute into our communities over the last twenty years. Paying one consultant, with fancy hotel and classy airfare, for less than for a month costs the same as training and hiring a local person for over a year. These consultants look good for donors, but are no longer in the interest of our communities. Time to trim the fat and cut out the consultants.
Cutting consultants wont save the Global fund.
Yeh I think ur right but cutting consultants wont save the Global fund. Need donors like USA, UK, Japan and Italy to keep their promise. Thats the one.
#GlobalFund Statement: A death-delivering decision!
RT @HIV_Chat: RT @AIDSIndia: RT @Right2Health:
A death-delivering decision! — RT @skowalski: #GlobalFund Statement: http://t.co/wNVJr9JG #HIV_chat — Communities SpeakUp!
Global Fund spins, civil society sputters
I have read the statement. I have seen this tweeter message from the global fund communities Board member @ShaunMellors Shaun Mellors
"#Theglobalfund ain't broke. We have a gr8t strategy, a transformation plan, new governance structure & committed board constituencies! Hope!" (23 Nov)
Hope? Thats what we should do? O God help all those whose lives depend one these lobbyists and spin doctors. They can't be trusted.
So called 'representatives' shuld resign
Before during and now after this disastor meeting the community representivs at the GF have not consulted anyone in d community. They fly business class to the five star hotel to mix with importent people and advance there own interest. No one voted for them they are selected by a few crony also not voted for. Take responsabilty, resign. Corruption is the cuz of the disastor so community shuld clean up our house first.
Stop corruption should begin with civil society
The civil society delegations to the Global Fund are not accountable to the constituencies they are supposed to serve. They failed in 2010 at the Replenishment Conference and did not take responsibility. Easy to blame donors. Where was the mobilisation? Where was the call for action? Instead, money was wasted flying a select few to New York to look good for sound bites no one saw. Now they fail to deal with the cancellation of future rounds of the Global fund. A small clique of the same dozen or so people has become gatekeepers of the 'voice' of the broad community, with no way to hold them to account. The business class travel and five star hotels is just symbolic of the problem. Stop corruption should begin with civil society. Taking responsibilty is part of this.
Look beyond the corruption of so called representatives for now
The Global Fund is great. Now it needs support from the community. I mean the comrades who have now got access that wouldnt have without the funding. All of us must move together. Yeh we have to fight for a system of voting and holding these corrupt reps to account but i think the priority is to find new ways of getting new moneys for treatment. If we can get another round going we can then deal with the hi-flyers. Make sense?
Global Fund crisis: good summary from Aidspan
Here a good summary of the Global Fund Observer, a free
newsletter available from www.aidspan.org/gfo.
The funding crisis in Global Fund will limit the number of people that can be put on treatment. This is a very serious issue. we must organise.
Surprise Honesty: China says HIV/AIDS cases are soaring
After decades of saying no real problem or even epidemic:
(Reuters) - The number of new HIV/AIDS cases in China is soaring, state media said on Wednesday, citing health officials, with rates of infections among college students and older men rising. The Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention issued figures showing 48,000 new cases in China in 2011, the official Xinhua news agency said. Nearly 82 percent of those new cases were transmitted through sexual intercourse, Xinhua said, up from 11.6 percent between 1985 and 2005.
"The distribution of HIV/AIDS cases in our country is now wider and more scattered than ever, posing great difficulties for prevention and control efforts," Wu Zunyou, the director of the Center, said according to Xinhua.
The Center said the number of HIV positive men 60 and above soared from 483 in 2005 to 3,031 in 2010, or 8.9 percent of the total HIV cases in the country.
That same age group accounted for 2,546 of all AIDS cases, or 11 percent. Infections among male college students between the ages of 20 and 24 has also risen, it said.
The number of officially registered HIV carriers and AIDS patients in China is expected to jump from 346,000 to 780,000 by the end of 2011 after the data is updated, Xinhua said. China's government was initially slow to acknowledge the problem of HIV/AIDS in the 1990s and had sought to cover it up when hundreds of thousands of impoverished farmers in rural Henan province became infected through botched blood-selling schemes.
Beijing has since stepped up the fight, spending more on prevention programmes, launching schemes to give universal access to anti-retroviral drugs to contain the disease, and introducing policies to curb discrimination.
But in a country where taboos surrounding sex remain strong and discussion of the topic is largely limited, people with HIV/AIDS say they are often stigmatised.
We also need to motivate CCMs
Dear All
In addition to the advocacy from ITPC, we also need to motivate CCM's from each country to issue press releases and speak up about how their country benefitted from the GFATM funding and also share about the negative impact of not fully funding round 10 and canceling round 11 until 2014. Each CCM has 20-45 members.
It will be good to share a template of press release (where they can include numbers reached also) which can used by various CCM's on World AIDS Day and also fax /email the same to various donor nations. There is a central e-mail lists for the CCM's at GFATM office for communicating with all CCM's.
Countries benefitted from the GFATM through 10 rounds must share the impact of GFATM in their country with the world. Like my own country, India, got approval for more than one billon dollar in funding.
best regards
Subha
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Dr. Sai Subhasree Raghavan President, SAATHII
India Mobile: 919840033302
Skype: Subhasree http://www.saathii.org/orc
Cancellation of Funding By Global Fund Endangers Human Lives
International Network of Treatment Advocates Calls on Donor Governments to Step Forward to End Crisis.
— The International Treatment Preparedness Coalition -India (ITPC-India) regrets the cancellation of Round 11 by the Global Fund to Fight against AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. This is a tremendous setback to the agenda of expanding AIDS treatment access for all those in need. The Global Fund is one of the most significant institutions in a fight against an epidemic that claims three million lives a year, and in its ten years has played a critical role in strengthening health programmes in many countries. In the area of HIV, the Global Fund has supported 3.2 million out of the 6.6 million people currently on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment. These 3.2 million lives are now in jeopardy as funds dry up and existing treatment programs may have to shut their doors. People who would have been spared from death will now instead fall ill and die. Ironically, such decisions are being made at a time when scientific evidence demonstrates that ARV treatment can both saves lives and prevent new infections. Rather than implementing ambitious plans to scale up the provision of treatment as outlined by U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton in her address earlier this month, countries and communities will now need to discuss how best to manage a treatment scale-down.
The shortfall in funding for the Global Fund is $10 billion, an insignificant amount in comparison to the bank bailouts made by the US and European governments or even the bonuses set aside for Goldman Sachs executives this year. Instead the Global Fund has put in place an emergency “transition mechanism” to safeguard only those countries that have current Global Fund grants and who will face program disruption between 1 January 2012 and 31 March 2014. The restricted funding can only be used for essential prevention, treatment, and/or care services. However, such decisions will be devastating for organisations working in communities around the world. Trends indicate that funding for HIV had already begun to flatline by the end of the last decade. Last year the Global Fund failed to raise the minimum $13 billion that was needed to maintain its current programmes. And of the overall $20 billion target, it raised roughly one-half, with $11.5 billion secured in pledges. To make matters worse, this year the Global Fund has been struggling with addressing the misuse of funds by recipients in a number of countries.
The lack of political and financial commitment to the AIDS response is deeply worrisome, and the millions of people living with and fighting against these deadly diseases will payan enormous price. Rather than building on the new evidence that AIDS treatment saves lives and prevents new infections and scaling up treatment programs to try to end this epidemic, donor governments are now implicitly supporting a policy of triage, determining who lives and who dies.
Failure to invest in the fight against AIDS now simply means a return to the days of daily funerals and overflowing hospital wards. The virus doesn’t wait on the whims of donors. The decision by donors will entrench the epidemic once again around the world, drastically increasing the costs of containing it when the world’s leaders once again wake up to the crisis around them. This is a crisis of conscience in which donor nations are ready to let millions die needless deaths. ITPC calls upon all its coalition partners to resist and challenge donors and decision makers. The AIDS epidemic is far from over, but with a sustained commitment to comprehensive treatment, prevention and care services, it is still possible in our lifetime to create an AIDS-Free Generation.
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In Solidarity, Manoj Pardeshi National Coordinator,
International Treatment Preparedness Coalition-India (ITPC-India) 401 Ganga Prestige Arcade, Laxmi Road, 612 - A, Nana Peth, Pune, Maharashtra , India, Pin 411 002 Phone - +91 20 2633 6083 or 84 or 87 Cell - + 91 9923 797 326 Skype ID: manoj.pardesi1 www.nmpplus.netwww.itpcglobal.org
On the Gutting of the Global Fund
Remarks by Stephen Lewis, Co-Director of AIDS-Free World,
On the Gutting of the Global Fund:
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has been the international financial armada in the battle against the three diseases. The collapse of the next round of Global Fund grants, known as Round 11, is the most serious, catastrophic setback in the Fund's decade of existence. Hiding behind the banner of the financial crisis, the donor countries have clearly decided that if budgetary cuts are to be made, the Global Fund can be among the first to go.
It's terribly important to recognize the moral implications. It's not just the fact that people will die; it's the fact that those who have made the decision know that people will die. How does that get rationalized? How does that get dealt with in the inner sanctums of development ministries and cabinet discussions? What in God’s name do they say to each other?
They know, equally, that in the distribution of pain and suffering from AIDS, Africa is the epicenter. It has 68% of those living with the virus worldwide; it has 70% of new infections. They know that Africa is the one part of the world that cannot possibly reach the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. They know that many countries on the continent are reeling from poverty, conflict and disease.
What possesses the donor community to intensify the emotional and physical havoc?
Do they regard Africa as a territorial piece of geographic obsolescence? Do they regard Africans themselves as casually expendable? Is it because the women and children of Africa are not comparable in the eyes of western governments to the women and children of Europe and North America? Is it because Africans are black and unacknowledged racism is at play? Is it because a fighter jet is worth so much more than human lives? Is it because defense budgets are more worthy of protection in an economic downturn than millions of human beings?
I will never understand.
What happened at the Global Fund last week is of course merely the latest episode in the unvarying history of betrayal. Do you remember the G8 Summit in Gleneagles in 2005? The most solemn commitment was made to provide an additional $50 billion in aid to the developing world by 2010, $25 billion of which was destined for Africa. Come the Summit in 2010 (in Canada you will recall), the G8 was between $10 billion and $15 billion short of the target.
Prime Minister Tony Blair's words on the $50 billion pledge at the 2005 Summit are memorable: "This is what we declare. We are going to be held to this; we are bound by it; we are committed to it; judge us by it."
What a craven politician.
But of course, he's not alone. Let me remind you that in June of this year, there was a High-Level Meeting on AIDS at the United Nations. It was the tenth anniversary of the UN Declaration of Commitment on HIV/AIDS, and the fifth anniversary of the UN Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS.
continues at:
http://hosted.verticalresponse.com/594745/ee0f811cb8/1468555807/955b05c498/
To the World Leaders
Recife, November 25, 2011
To the World Leaders
LACCASO has received the recent news of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria situation with consternation. In the last few months in Latin America and the Caribbean we have been facing repeated crises of antiretroviral medicine supply failures in various countries and we have criticized the lack of leadership on the part of national governments and their increasing tendency to place obstacles in the way of giving priority on their agendas to the needs and demands of people living with HIV and AIDS. Treatment and prevention has become a growing challenge in a context created by the 10% reduction in global resources for AIDS that took place in 2010.
We cannot resign ourselves to accepting that the current financial crisis, resulting from the greed of the financial markets and the poor administration of governments in the more developed countries, should lead to the death of thousands of people in southern countries that are being profoundly affected by the delays in external cooperation for sustainable development and world health. The governments of the rich countries have made formal commitments and must shoulder their responsibilities and account to society for the fulfillment of those agreements. The current gap in funding for the global AIDS response is to the order of 125 million dollars and it needs to be closed with the utmost urgency.
LACCASO believes that it is especially negative that the current Global Fund crisis comes at a time when we actually have the means to control the epidemic and avoid new infections, sickness and death; for all those reasons we cannot rest or remain silent until world leaders decide to adopt pro-active attitudes and take effective steps to find a solution to this situation and act with the same intensity, degree of commitment and rapid performance they exhibited last year when trillions of dollars were quickly mobilized to save the global financial system from collapsing.
Ignoring this appeal would mean turning your backs on all the commitments undertaken and telling the world that you, the leaders of the worlds richest nations, are losing your sense of ethics, responsibility and respect for life and sustainable development. The absence of those elements in the performance of the world’s politicians would unfortunately be a sign that we can no longer count on leaders capable of addressing the problems that stand in the way of the progress of Humanity and the advancement of Human Rights.
Alessandra.Nilo
Regional Secretary -- alessandra.nilo@gestospe.org.br
Robinson Cabello, Executive Director
Claudia Ayala, Leonardo Sanchez
Lorenzo Vargas, Pascual Ortells -Executive Committee
Cancellation of Round 11 funding - act as an energizer?
Dear colleagues,
The cancellation of Round 11 funding is going to be a challenge for recipient governments and institutions. But I wonder whether this situation will also act as an energizer, to get recipient governments to start seriously considering, and in some cases, implementing alternative funding arrangements, even though such schemes may not replace the funding capacity under the GFATM.
Regards, Bonnie
Bonface Fundafunda PhD., MBA., B.Pharm
Manager, Drug Supply Budget Line
Ministry of Health, P.O. Box 30205, Ndeke House,
Lusaka, Zambia
Tel: +260 211 25 41 83 Fax: +260 211 25 33 44
Mobile: + 260 979 25 29 00 Email: bcfunda@hotmail.com
UNAIDS: Enuf of saying all is well when it aint
All the time these bigshot UN people paint happy pictures on bad news. Take no responsibilty. Now say we are winning when we will be dieing. Enuf. Truth is first thing we need now.
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UNAIDS Executive Director's 2011 World AIDS Day message
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GENEVA - Never before in the history of AIDS have we reached a moment where we are able to stand up and say with conviction the end of AIDS is in sight.
It has been a year of achievements, of collective action, of resilience and of courage. In spite of the economic downturn that has stretched the AIDS response to its limits, millions of lives have been saved, as HIV treatment and prevention efforts continue to show results.
World leaders have made new promises—bold, tangible and realistic. These promises now must be delivered in every country, every community and to every person in need.
Fortunately, leaders are standing up to say that an AIDS-free generation is possible and that no child should be born with HIV and no mother should die of AIDS.
The gulf between treatment and prevention has ended. Treatment is prevention.
The divide between health and AIDS has narrowed, as AIDS comes out of isolation and into integrated and holistic health services. The AIDS response has paved the path for a people-centred health delivery system, one that values and restores the respect and dignity of every individual.
The road before us is clear and we can accelerate ahead with smart investments, capitalizing on scientific advancements and evidence and respecting human rights. It is why world leaders must fully fund the AIDS response. The global investment target of US$ 22-24 billion is a shared responsibility—of all countries, donors and others. Only together can we secure the future and provide greater and long-term dividends.
Today, on this World AIDS Day, I call upon leaders, communities, parents, people living with HIV and young people to look forward and work towards a world with Zero new HIV infections, Zero discrimination and Zero AIDS-related deaths.
Online at: http://www.safaids.net/content/unaids-executive-directors-2011-world-aid...
No money to implement new prevention strategies
UGANDA: No money to implement new prevention strategies
KAMPALA, 30 November 2011 (PLUSNEWS) - Uganda is keen to implement new policies to put more people on life-prolonging antiretroviral treatment sooner, as recent scientific breakthroughs indicate would be much more beneficial, but officials say the country's poor financial outlook means there is little chance of this.
This report online: http://www.plusnews.org/report.aspx?reportID=94348
CALL TO ACTION
The cancellation by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria of all new
programming until 2014 is unacceptable. This decision will cost lives and
cripple international efforts to deliver on health-related goals, breaking
promises made to some of the world's most vulnerable people, and punishing
the Global Fund's success of the last ten years.
People living with HIV and their supporters, as well as communities affected
by TB or malaria, are extremely concerned about the damage under-funding of
the Global Fund is causing. We therefore demandthat:
. The Global Fund Board and Secretariat mobilise the resources
necessary to scale-up the response to the three diseases through a new
funding opportunity for 2012, estimated at US$2 billion.[1] <#_ftn1>
. Donors to the Global Fund - particularly governments - urgently
deliver on the commitments they made to meet health goals[2] <#_ftn2> and
to fund the Global Fund at its Replenishment Meeting in 2010.[3] <#_ftn3>
. The Global Fund hold an emergency donor conference and issue a new
call for proposals before theInternational AIDS Conference in July 2012 to
fully fund the scale-up of programmes that will fundamentally changing the
course of these three epidemics, and put the world on the path towards
ending AIDS.
This is 200 days from 1 January. 200 days to save the Global Fund.
We cannot wait until 2014 for the Global Fund to support further scale-up of
programmes and life-saving treatment. We urgently call on the Global Fund to
meet the timeline above and for donors and affected countries to ensure that
interventions with the highest impact on the three epidemics are supported.
The clock is ticking. Millions of lives are at stake.
Signed so far by:
AIDS & Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA), Namibia & South Africa
Health, Human Rights and Development (CEHURD), Uganda
Health GAP, USA
International Civil Society Support, The Netherlands
International HIV/AIDS Alliance, UK
Pangaea Global AIDS Foundation, USA
World AIDS Campaign, South Africa